Areca Resort & Spa — Hotel in Kathu

Beautiful pool and spectacular front desk. Besides these, literally the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in the world.

I love to travel the world and have never experienced such terrible experiences.

First coming to the hotel, you have to walk through a bunch of hallways, take the elevator and take another long walk to your room, and this is where I feel like I’m in a resort.

They only give you one key and won’t give you another one regardless that two of us checked in. Hotel key literally says the room number on there which is crazy.

Electricity is not given without inserting your room card to the slot in the room. That means, AC is off the whole time and leaves you a humid and hot. The room smelled awful: all the mold and dust combining together give it a really unique and terrible smell that you should not be experiencing at all at this price range.

Fortunately, our room does get a good view of the pool, which is nice but the pool is under maintained. There are leafs floating on the water. Water is dirty, no one really wanted to jump in.

Upon checking out, front desk does not speak English at all and does not understand what I am saying. I needed to find a translator on the phone and tell them I needed to check out. Check out process went rather quickly, they sent housekeeping maid to your room to check if all the amenities are in good condition, including all the linen. This is where comes the funny part, they never told us that they were going to charge us for stained laundry throughout our entire stay but they have noticed a tiny little patch of blood on the pillow so they decided to have to charge us 200 baht for “extra cleaning” apparently, they don’t do that level of clean after each guest’s stay. I asked the front desk person if they wash and change the linens after each guest and then they don’t understand what I’m saying so I’m assuming they don’t change the linens after each guest unless they get dirty and they would have to charge you 200 baht of cleaning fee for your dirty pillow cover which is crazy. I’ve stayed in thousands of hotels in my life. Big hotel chains and small Airbnb style and I’ve never experienced such interesting things. It is just insane and out of my mind and it totally blows my mind but I ended up paying because I have to go to the airport. I don’t wanna argue with the front desk anymore because the language barrier.

The worst hotel stay i have experienced till now

Hotel doesn’t have a little shop, I was trying to get some snacks and couldn’t find any convenience store nearby.

Final opinion, don't waste your money in booking this...

The Areca Resort & Spa is a very pleasant place to stay for a first time trip to Thailand.||||The property is located in Kathu which is roughly a 10 min taxi/tuk tuk ride to the main strip Patong Beach. There is usually taxis at the front of the property, it isn't that difficult to find one. The reception staff are happy to help. ||||The property itself was well maintained and very clean. The pool was gorgeous and at night they have pool lights which illuminate the pool in different colours. Very pretty to look at. We had daily breakfast included which runs from 6:30 - 10:30AM. There are plenty of options to choose from including continental breakfast to hearty hot food. The food was great every single day! ||||There are convenience stores just across the road which are open late so very easy to get something even if it's late at night. We didn't eat in the hotel but there is a Lucky 13 sandwich store across the road and it is open 24/7 and is a must try! We ate there almost every day. Their food is amazing! ||||Daily housekeeping everyday and the staff are very friendly. Although not many speak English so at time is was difficult to communicate however more times than not there is usually a manager on reception that can speak better English. ||||There is a bar and a spa located on ground floor near reception. The bar is only open late and drinks are very expensive. The spa is open everyday and services are expensive there as well. Drinks and massages are cheap everywhere else.||||We also had to add a roll away bed in our room and that too was expensive. It was almost cheaper to book another room. We didn't want to stay in separate room so we did have to go with the roll away bed.||||The hotel caters to many tourist groups (mainly Chinese) so very few other international tourists. As a group of girls in our 20's we were the only guests around this age group and from Australia. However it didn't bother us at all. We still had a very fun time. The hotel is quiet I'm sure we might have been the loudest group there!||||Overall we really enjoyed our stay and would definitely stay again. I would recommend staying at Areca...

My husband and I were placed here after he was taken ill on holiday and had a hospital stay he was then discharged to this hotel curtesy of our holiday insurance, for a short stay before a medical escort home to the UK could be arranged. The hotel itself is lovely, the rooms are clean,bright with excellent AC. The downside, mostly cater to Chinese visitors, no other English speaking guests, the pool is mostly shaded, the 4 sunloungers have no cushions, the poolside bar didnt open until late afternoon and the drinks were expensive. The staff didnt have much English and there were no English channels on the tv. We didnt eat in the restaurant thank goodness for the Lucky 13 sandwich bar across the road from the hotel, as my husband was quite ill, that was as far as he could walk. When checking out the staff were more concerned about us leaving a day early (as we wouldnt get a refund) than the fact that we had a doctor meeting us to escort my husband home.No would not stay here again - one to avoid...